Pickfair

Aerial view of Pickfair, 1920.

Pickfair was a 56 acre estate in the city of Beverly Hills, California designed by architect Wallace Neff for silent film actors Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. Coined "Pickfair" by the press, it was once one of the most celebrated homes in the world. Life Magazine described Pickfair as "a gathering place only slightly less important than the White House, and much more fun."

History

Located at 1143 Summit Drive, in the San Ysidro Canyon in Beverly Hills, California, the property was a hunting lodge when purchased by Fairbanks in 1919 for his bride, Mary Pickford. The newlyweds extensively renovated the lodge transforming it into a 4 story 42 room mansion complete with stables, servants quarters, tennis courts, a large guest wing, and garages. Remodeled by Wallace Neff in an English Manor style it took 5 years to complete. Ceiling frescos, parquet flooring, wood paneled halls of fine mahogany and bleached pine, gold leaf and mirrored decorative niches, all added to the authentic charm of "Pickfair." The property was said to have been the first private home in the Los Angeles area to include a swimming pool (set in a large formal garden).

Pickfair featured a collection of Early 18th century English and French period furniture, decorative arts and antiques. Notable pieces in the collection included furniture from the Barbarini Palace and the Baroness Burdett-Coutts estate in London. The highlight of any visit to Pickfair was a large collection of Chinese Objects d'art collected by Fairbanks and Pickford on their many visits to the Orient. The mansion also featured an ornate old west bar obtained from a saloon in Auburn, California graced with paintings and sculpture by Frederic Remington. The interiors of Pickfair were decorated and updated throughout the years by Elsie De Wolfe, Marjorie Requa, Tony Duquette, and Kathryn Crawford.

During the 1920s the house became the focal point for Hollywood's social activities, and the couple became famous for entertaining there. An invitation to Pickfair was a sign of social acceptance into the closed Hollywood community. Dinners at Pickfair were legendary; guests included Charlie Chaplin (who also lived next door), the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Greta Garbo, George Bernard Shaw, Albert Einstein, Elinor Glyn, Helen Keller, H.G. Wells, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Fritz Kreisler, Tony Duquette, Amelia Earhart, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Joan Crawford, Noël Coward, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, Pearl S. Buck, Charles Lindbergh, Max Reinhardt, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Edison, Lillian Gish, Gloria Swanson, the Duke and Duchess of Alba, the King and Queen of Siam, Austen Chamberlain, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko,, and Sir Harry Lauder. Lauder's nephew, Matt Lauder Jr., a professional golfer whose family had a property at Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, California, taught Fairbanks to play golf.

Fairbanks and Pickford were divorced in January 1936, and Pickford resided in the mansion with her third husband, actor and musician Charles "Buddy" Rogers, until her death in 1979. Pickford received few visitors in her later years, but continued to open up her grand home for charitable organizations and parties.

In 1976 Pickford received a second Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in Film. The Honorary Oscar was presented to her in the formal Living Room of Pickfair and televised on the 48th Academy Awards. Introduced and narrated by Gene Kelly, it provided the public a very rare glimpse inside the fabled mansion.

Sale and demolition

Empty for several years after Pickford's death it was sold to Los Angeles Lakers owner, Dr. Jerry Buss, who continued to care for the home, updating and preserving much of the unique charm of "Pickfair." In 1988, however, it was purchased by actress Pia Zadora and her husband Meshulam Riklis. They announced they were planning renovations to the famous estate but revealed in 1990 that they had in fact demolished Pickfair and a new larger "Venetian style palazzo" was going to be constructed in its place.

Faced with harsh criticism from a nostalgic public, including Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Zadora defended her family's actions, stating that the house was allegedly in a poor state of repair, and was infested by termites. In the L.A. Times, Fairbanks Jr. expressed "I regret it very much. I wonder, if they were going to demolish it, why they bought it in the first place."

The only remaining artifacts from the original Pickfair are the gates to the estate, the kidney shaped pool and pool house, remnants of the living room, as well as the two bedroom guest wing that played host to visiting royalty and notable film celebrities for over half a century. The guest wing was once used as a honeymoon suite for Lord Louis and Lady Mountbatten.

Pickfair was purchased by UNICOM International, Inc. in April 2005, a division of UNICOM Global, a software and business services company whose founder and CEO is Mr. Corry Hong. The estate is currently up for sale on MLS for $60 million as of Sept. 8, 2008.

In popular culture

Zadora's purchase and subsequent demolition of Pickfair is referenced in Deborah Harry and Iggy Pop's cover version of "Well, Did You Evah!". Pop claims he was invited to Pia Zadora's house but didn't go, later saying "I hear they dismantled Pickfair... wasn't elegant enough", to which Harry replies "probably full of termites".

Pickfair is referenced in The Simpsons episode [3F12] - "Bart the Fink". Krusty the Clown walks through the gates to his estate which read "Schtickfair".

External links

• Photographs of "Pickfair" during its heyday in the 1920s
• 2008 listing for sale article- the Real Estalker: PickFair
• Luxist: Estate of the Day - May, 2009
• Listing Website for Pickfair